Cliffhanger Ending Help?

Maybe, for now, try not worrying about chapter endings. Just keep writing, and when you're done you can go back in and decide where the chapter divisions should fall.

If you want a cliff-hanger ending, the chapter should end at a moment of tension, where the reader, hopefully, can't wait to know what happens next. Chapter endings to make the reader want to know what happens next don't have to be action-related cliff-hangers.

If the chapter has a stated goal for the main character to reach in that chapter, readers will read the chapter to find out if that goal is attained.

The chapter could be ended just before the goal is reached - preferably by tossing a spanner in the works so the hopes of reaching that goal are shattered or appear to be so.

Main thing with a cliff-hanger ending is to not start the next chapter with the dreadful sort of limp let-downs there used to be in the old cinematic serials.

As already mentioned, best to let the story unfold and see where these moments of tension fall in the story progression, rather than deliberately writing with the intention of finding a cliff-hanger ending to chapters.

Good luck, whichever course you decide to follow.

Hi Alice,

You have the same options to end a chapter you do a sentence - a period, a question mark, an exclamation point. When you're writing, you will naturally come on these and that's where you want to end a particular chapter. For me, it's very intuitive. I'm a pantser, so I don't really know where I'm going always, but I generally know when to stop. Something has changed; some new information has been introduced; some moment, some feeling has been arrived at that is new.

AliceL said:

Hello All,

I've noticed I seem to struggle with coming up with a good place to end my chapters in a way thats interesting and leaves the reader wanting to read more but at the same time doesn't just abruptly end out of nowhere.

Do y'all have any advice for do's and don'ts of cliffhangers and any rules of thumb you follow in your own works?

Thank you!

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I usually end it on a convenient scene break. Terry Pratchett doesn't write in chapters. You've just got to practise and figure out what works best for you.

It's been a while since I've read Dan Brown, but I have this memory of The Da Vinci Code ending nearly every chapter with new bits of information that kept screaming turn the page.

Scenes, not chapters, are the basic dramatic unit. Chapters are just containers for scenes, and more useful for us than for our readers. A long scene may be split over several chapters.

Cliffhangers are a clumsy way to maintain interest across chapter breaks. Our narrative must be continuously compelling, ever urging the readers along, though the urgency may be muted occasionally to give our readers some rest from high tension. If we keep up the urgency however slight a chapter break will just be a slight bump in their attention, a page turn, maybe a page dog-ear so our readers can have a hurried toilet break or quick slap-together of a sandwich before eagerly returning to our story.

So avoid cliffhangers.

So avoid cliff-hangers?

Forgive me, Laer, but how on earth can you describe cliff-hanger chapter endings as clumsy?

Any scene/chapter ending that leaves the reader desperate to read on could be described as a cliff-hanger.

If my reader wanted a toilet break- that's their problem, and choice- not mine.

Colourful covers you have there -

My thought on "avoiding cliffhangers," relative to the ending of a novel, anyway, is to tie up all the major conflict threads so the tension resolves, before putting the cliffhanger cherry on top.

I would be enraged as a reader, for example, if the book simply ended at the climax with no resolution.

I would be enthralled, however, if hero did the thing to kill the bad guy and everyone went home... but then (dun dun dun) the death of the bad guy opened up the evil power vacuum for someone even worse to come to town, and NOW I MUST BUY BOOK 2.

I have no idea where to install chapters in my own work. They're probably the last thing I include, but I do structure them around pulses in tension. I don't have the gift of creating perfectly symmetrical chapters with perfectly symmetrical ripples of tension--though I have seen it done and I'm in awe when an author does this effectively.

Bufty said:

...how on earth can you describe cliff-hanger chapter endings as clumsy? Any scene/chapter ending that leaves the reader desperate to read on could be described as a cliff-hanger.

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"Clumsy" is overly strong, perhaps. "Unnecessary" might be better.

It had BETTER be unnecessary. Our readers should be interested all throughout a scene. They must turn each page, wanting more, EACH page, not just the last page of a chapter. If each page is not engaging they are likely to put down the book for something more rewarding.

Cliffhanger suggests a major event. A typical two to four dozen chapters each ending in a cliffhanger is too much drama, and too predictable. "Tease" is a better term for an event ending a chapter which urges our readers to turn the page, if we choose to insert such an event.

Rather than a tease/cliffhanger at the end of a chapter we might want to have a sentence or paragraph that alerts our readers to a change in the course of the story, perhaps a zig zag in the plot. Or the entrance or exit of a new character. Or a jump in time, or a change of place. Or some other transition.

Hi, Laer,

The first part of your post suggests you don't agree with cliffhanger endings at all, but then your last paragraph suggests you do.

Is the difference between us our definition of a 'cliffhanger'?

It used to literally mean hanging onto the cliff edge by our nails, but that's obviously metaphorical and I think it's now regarded more as a moment of growing excitement or anticipation or heightened tension etc...

I don't interpret them as major or catastrophic 'events' deliberately put at the end of a weak scene or chapter to bolster or prop them up.

If one of your chapters ends with the heroes in space finding their course is unexpectedly altered or their craft has developed a fuel leak, or they receive intelligence they have a spy on board, or they may be facing heavier odds than anticipated, or the plot takes an unexpected zigzag as you say, and your readers can't wait to turn the page to see how the characters deal with this and to find out what happens next - that suggests, to me at least, you have a cliffhanger ending to that chapter, whether you intended it as such or not.

Different genres- horses for courses...

Laer Carroll said:

"Clumsy" is overly strong, perhaps. "Unnecessary" might be better.

It had BETTER be unnecessary. Our readers should be interested all throughout a scene. They must turn each page, wanting more, EACH page, not just the last page of a chapter. If each page is not engaging they are likely to put down the book for something more rewarding.

Cliffhanger suggests a major event. A typical two to four dozen chapters each ending in a cliffhanger is too much drama, and too predictable. "Tease" is a better term for an event ending a chapter which urges our readers to turn the page, if we choose to insert such an event.

Rather than a tease/cliffhanger at the end of a chapter we might want to have a sentence or paragraph that alerts our readers to a change in the course of the story, perhaps a zig zag in the plot. Or the entrance or exit of a new character. Or a jump in time, or a change of place. Or some other transition.

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Bufty said:

If the chapter has a stated goal for the main character to reach in that chapter, readers will read the chapter to find out if that goal is attained.

The chapter could be ended just before the goal is reached - preferably by tossing a spanner in the works so the hopes of reaching that goal are shattered or appear to be so.

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I feel like this will achieve the purpose of making the reader turn the page, but may frustrate them. I think it's desirable to maintain the idea of a chapter as a thematically complete whole.

However, there is another solution. Rather than end a chapter just before the resolution of a conflict, end it just after the introduction of a new one. If you're not at the end of the book, more conflicts remain, and after having a moment's rest after resolving one, your characters will remember or discover the next.

Laer Carroll said:

It had BETTER be unnecessary. Our readers should be interested all throughout a scene. They must turn each page, wanting more, EACH page, not just the last page of a chapter.

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Personally speaking, as a reader, when I find a good book that's grabbed my full attention, if it's well-written and engaging, then I'm naturally going to keep wanting to turn the page. But I don't want every page to make me think OH GOD I'VE GOT TO KEEP GOING, otherwise I'll have had a nervous breakdown by the end of the first few dozen pages.

I see cliffhanger chapter endings as the high points on really loopy roller coasters. The places in which the tension has built to an unbearable level, a level that can't simply be inserted mid-chapter because I, as a reader, need a break—even if it's just the turn of the page to the start of the next chapter—to imagine and ponder how events might turn out. Not every chapter has to be a cliffhanger, and indeed I (as one of those pedantic people who only increases their TV/radio volume in increments of 5, or only ends a reading session at a chapter end) welcome the chapters which don't end with cliff hangers.

But I also appreciate the ones that do. I'm currently writing chapter 93 of a veeeery long fanfic (updates once per week, so it's been nearly 2 years in the making) and the feedback I get at the end of a 'cliffhanger' chapter is overwhelmingly more excited and eager than the feedback I get for chapters which end on a calmer, less hanging note.

Granted that's probably a bit of an exception, as I wouldn't expect your average novel to push 93 chapters and half a million words. But me-the-reader wants that roller coaster ride. And if the cliff hangers come at scene breaks, that's fine (one of my favourite authors of all time didn't write in chapters). But chapters are a good place for me to read and write the cliffs.

The Urban Spaceman said:

Personally speaking, as a reader, when I find a good book that's grabbed my full attention, if it's well-written and engaging, then I'm naturally going to keep wanting to turn the page. But I don't want every page to make me think OH GOD I'VE GOT TO KEEP GOING, otherwise I'll have had a nervous breakdown by the end of the first few dozen pages.

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I certainly didn't suggest that. But EVERY page has to have SOMETHING to keep our readers engaged, even if it's something fairly small.


Building on morngnstar's comments:

The term "cliffhanger" is too suggestive of the old hanging-by-the-fingernails action of old black-and-white serials. I prefer "tease." And say again that a tease should be unnecessary. If we've engaged our readers they'll turn the last page of the chapter eagerly.

If we want to include SOMETHING at the end of a chapter that is different in some way to the previous maybe-30 pages it could be a transition of some kind.

One kind could be called a tease, or hint, or promise. "They'd defeated that enemy. But there was yet another to face." This is one of morngnstar's suggestions.

But it could be the reverse: a "stop" or "period" that signifies the end of a sequence of action, such as several scenes that cover the crew of heroes and heroines fighting a company of the bad guys and defeating them.

"They'd defeated that enemy. Time now to rest for a day, or maybe a week." This suggests a slowing down of the action. You need such rest stops in a long tension-filled story.

Then the opening of the next chapter is a jump of a week or a month. We see the questers marching strongly along, spirits high. And on the horizon a trace of dust which might reveal another band of bad guys. Or it might be a peaceful caravan that they could join with the promise of adding to the caravan's protection.

This puts the cliffhanger/tease/promise/hint at the beginning of the next chapter, the opening salvo of many pages, each one pulling our readers more and more into our story.

I'll add an example of what I'm talking about. I just finished a chapter that climaxes with a sex scene. But that's not the end of the chapter. The end of the chapter is second thoughts and regrets. So, how will this affect their relationship? Keep reading to find out.

Another example is, "Aha, I've found a clue." The clue is a resolution of one conflict: maybe it resolves "how he dunnit". But it points toward another question. You found the fingerprints on the gun, but the shooter was holding it LEFT-HANDED!

Quite a while back my critique group told me to stop making it so easy for my characters. Maybe don't write such a rosy story with everything working out so well.

I wanted two of my characters to be best friends soon after they met. Nope, too easy, throw in all sorts of culture clashing, not snobby clashing, rather, awkward stuff. Conflict is so much more interesting than instant best friends (unless of course your story calls for instant best friends for some reason, but consider making life harder on your characters).

And you don't have to have tension at the end of every chapter. In one chapter my characters go on a wild rapids ride with lots of mistakes and culminating in a near drowning. That chapter ends with exhausted but safe characters. It would have been too cliché to end the chapter not letting the reader know the character didn't drown.

I could have done that if every chapter was ending on a page turner. That works for some story structures. My story is more varied than that and I have plenty of page turner chapter endings in it.

Another chapter ends with my character crying her eyes out and another ends with a 'did they or did they not' kiss which the answer is never revealed.

All this stemmed from my critique group telling me I wasn't hard enough on my characters, more cow bell conflict.

You've already got a number of good ideas from others Alice. Some books don't go well with cliffhangers, you know they end their day and go to sleep, and then wake up in the next chapter....

For thriller writers who rely on stuff happening in multiple locations, you can do this effectively. Stephen King was good at it and I try my best in my books. The reader often has a favorite character and wants to read through the subsequent chapters to get back to that moment. Biggles' author was good at this, Biggles would get into trouble and just as we were about to find out, he then picks up Ginger's story which eventually coincides with Biggles in a way the reader can predict, but it doesn't stop you turning the page to see how the story pans out.

Use cliffhangers, but don't overuse them. They can be quite memorable scenes in your books when done effectively.

Laer Carroll said:

I certainly didn't suggest that. But EVERY page has to have SOMETHING to keep our readers engaged, even if it's something fairly small.

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I like to think good, well-written storytelling with an interesting plot line and engaging characters will perform that function. To me, "page" is a completely arbitrary and largely pointless unit of measurement. I don't write in pages, and I don't know anyone who does. One page of a book in my Kindle suddenly becomes a whole different length of page if I turn my tablet on its side.

Maybe we're talking about different things when we say "cliffhanger". Because "they'd defeated one enemy, but there was another yet to face" is what I would call a cliff-hanger. Granted, it's not the same kind of cliffhanger as "Jane has just been shot in the stomach at point blank range by a rabid foxperson, will she survive?!?" I'm thinking about the overall shape of the story, and chapters sometimes being good places to make your 'stops'—whether they're cliffhangers or transitions.

Maybe Chuck Wendig explains the idea of story shape better than me. Language alert.

Wendig has a good point. A story is like a symphony, with loud and soft parts, fast and slow parts, short and long parts. We are like the composer of the hills and valleys of the piece. Transitions of various sorts end each part, or begin the next. We might call the transition a cliffhanger/tease/promise/hint depending upon how dramatic they are.

The drama, the tension, of a transition depends on the effect we want to create in our readers. If every transition of some 30-40 chapters is super dramatic readers may weary of our story. Sometimes we want the chapter transition to be pianissimo rather than forte.

Laer Carroll said:

Sometimes we want the chapter transition to be pianissimo rather than forte.

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Indeed. I think we can all agree that having every chapter of a book end on a tension-high or a cliffhanger would be rather silly.

Personally, I tend to go with my gut on it. Sometimes I'll end on a 'big reveal' or at least a big change, which would be cliffhanger material, I think, but other times I end on a resolve, so the characters are definitely going to go and do something in the next chapter and the reader knows so. Mostly, I'd say just write what feels right to you. It might take reading back through the whole thing after to figure out that maybe there are too many cliffhangers at the end of chapters that come across as trying to hook the reader, or not.

The Urban Spaceman said:

Indeed. I think we can all agree that having every chapter of a book end on a tension-high or a cliffhanger would be rather silly.

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Odd one out here. Cussedness or old age - hope these two are mutually exclusive.